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No. 00284 |
August 23-29, 2003 |
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Faces of TruthBy John F Masare A Play Truth has many FacesHow many Faces have you…?Main Characters
Supporting Characters
Act 1, Scene 1 Initiation dance and song. Greyish lighting. Scene and music fade. Act 1,Scene 2 At TechTronics, an information technology firm, Pete sits still behind his desk. He begins a monologue. Pete - There weren't many initiates in our age group. That already was a bad sign. Our parents were turning away from the old ways out of shame. Shame taught to them by the Arabs and then the white man. Easy enough to criticize our forefathers now. For being made deaf and dumb. Harder to understand. Forgive. Yet we need to forgive. What became of our little initiation group? George is dead. That is simple. |So is Thomas. The rest? Kimolo is somewhere in Kijenge and he is killing himself with gongo. He prefers such a death to death from AIDS. What do I say to that? Gerald is a cop. Cynical and as twisted as a catfish that has lain too long in the sun . I despise Gerald but I use him. Perhaps he uses me more? Of course he uses me more. Bloody hell. And I? I am an executive who earns a good deal of money which means less and less to me each year. Its hard to remain passionate about copiers and warm up speeds and duplicators and all the rest with Osamas rampaging about and the economy, security and even the sanity of the blessed global village shaken to its roots. My children don't understand my moodiness and disenchantment. My wife has left. I suppose I haven't tried as hard as - A messenger steps into the office with some files which she places on Petes desk, Messenger - Good morning, sir. Pete - Good morning. How are you? Messenger - Fine, sir. Pete - Enjoying your work? Messenger - I - everything happens so quickly. But I am trying my best. Pete - Yes. Sarah is happy with you. Messenger - She is?! Pete - Yes. But don't tell her I told you so. Messenger - Oh! Oh, no sir! Pete - Fine. I want to see Sarah, Toyah and Fred in ten minutes. Messenger - I will tell them. Pete - And if you are having any problems then tell me. Don't keep it to yourself. Understand? Messenger - Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Messenger leaves and Pete flips through the files. Pete - Figures, graphs ,and pie charts in pretty colors. They all amount to one thing. We are losing our share of the market here in Arusha. Head office in Dar is not happy about this. Nor am I. He continues reading the file. Toyah steps in. Toyah - Morning, Pete. Pete - Morning. How are you? Toyah - All right. And you? Pete - Stressed. We have an executive coming up from Dar and our sales are down for the THIRD quarter in a row. The THIRD. Toyah - Is that all? Pete - Isnt it enough? Toyah - I got the feeling there was something else. Pete - I don't have time for feelings this morning. Toyah drops abruptly into a chair. Pete - I didn't mean that. Toyah - Fine. Fred and Sarah come into the office. Pete - You first Fred. Fred - The computer shipment from Dar will be delayed. Pete - Why? Fred - Transport problems. Pete - Transport problems? Have they run out of lorries down there or what? Fred - The quotations weve got are high. By as much as 400.- per kilometer over our original estimates. Pete - Look here. Theres about 650 kilometers between here and Dar. That works out to less than 30,000 extra per lorry. We only need four lorries. This deal is worth close to 500,000.-. If they don't have a working calculator at HQ then send them one. I want a confirmation fax or email on this today. Fred - Right. Pete - Anything else from you? Fred - Not for now, Fred leaves. Pete - Toyah, Why are we losing our share of the market? Breifly, please. Toyah - Prices. Pete - Didn't we do a survey? Toyah - Yes. Pete - Our prices aren't competitive? Toyah - That's right. Pete - Was Dar informed? Toyah - They were. Were still waiting for the revised pricelist. Pete - In this age of the internet and instant gratification - why should we wait? Our competitors aren't waiting for us to wake up. Are they? Toyah - No. Pete - Sarah. Did we inform Dar in writing? Sarah - By fax. Pete - I want you to prepare all reference correspondence for me to go through this afternoon. Anything else? Both - No. Pete - Then lets move. Toyah and Sarah leave. Pete sits and whistles a few bars of the song Malaika. Messenger steps in. Messenger - Excuse me, sir. Mr. Gerald would like to see you. Pete - Whats wrong with our intercom? Messenger - Its not working well. Pete - I realize that. Please ask our technical dept to get moving. Tell Gerald to come in. Messenger - Er, yes sir. Messenger leaves and Gerald enters a few moments later. To be continued next week.
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Last modified:
August 22, 2003. Webmaster: WDJMallya |
